Saturday, March 25, 2006

"The course is charted, arrogant use of the military is all the US ruling class has to maintain its dominance. After Iraq, asymmetric warfare, "terrorism," will be directed at Americans, American institutions, American targets, and American allies. When the rest of the world recognizes how thinly spread the US military is, thinly spread physically, and economically, because it is not a sustainable institution in its current incarnation, rebellions will occur. Indeed they have already started. The response of the weakening US will be to lash out, often with unforeseeable consequences, just as the consequences of this impending invasion are unforeseeable, and unknown."

A senior Wall Street figure reflects on his experiences in Beijing and Dubai last week ... and he wasn't talking to terrorists and jihadists.

"From Beijing to Dubai, there is a growing undercurrent of economic anti-Americanism. The irony of it all is truly extraordinary: The US has the greatest external deficit in the history of the world, and is now sending increasingly negative signals to two of its most generous providers of foreign capital -- China and the Middle East. The United States has been extraordinarily lucky to finance its massive current account deficit on extremely attractive terms. If its lenders now start to push back, those terms could change quickly -- with adverse consequences for the dollar, real long-term US interest rates, and overly indebted American consumers. The slope is getting slipperier, and Washington could care less."

Those interested in the varied and interesting career of Barry Townsley CBE (Governer of the Weizmann Institute of Science, British friend of The Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress , along with ex jail bird Gerald Ronson) might like to look at this Times storyof October 2005 ....

On a stormy night in December 2003, a colourful group of international businessmen gathered at Villa Castagnola, a grand hotel on the shore of Lake Lugano in Switzerland.

The former home of a Russian nobleman, it made a sumptuous setting for two days of talks. The main item on the agenda: how to spend the £150m that had made Crown Corporation the largest cash shell on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Among those present were Crown’s chairman Mariusz Rybak, a Canadian technology executive, and Jean-Pierre Regli, a Swiss-Italian banker and the company’s co-founder.

A full line-up of advisers included Barry Townsley of stockbroker Insinger Townsley, a Labour donor who had supported (to the tune of £10,000) Frank Dobson’s bid to become mayor of London. The bad weather meant he and Simon Fox, also from Insinger, had to hire a private jet to make the journey from France.Read More

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is caught between a rock and hard place in a letter made public to Hamas' designated prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh last week, he said ...

"I will exercise my mandate and authority where and when needed to protect the higher interests of the Palestinian people,"

The Palestinians' constitution, or Basic Law, (see here for more) empowers the president to fire the prime minister and disband Parliament.

Haniyeh has said his government would be presented to Parliament for a vote of confidence on Monday, and sworn in by Wednesday.

A troubled Abbas, faced with withrdrawal of financial assistance and the resolute opposaition of Israel has been said to want to "draw the battle lines" with Hamas, but also to warn Israel and the West that threats to sever aid and ties would likely strengthen the Islamist party.

In all of this the Israeli Government have the upper and controlling hand - expect some fireworks in Gaza this week.

" Pasadena based VIASPACE Inc. (OTCBB: VSPC), a company that transforms proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions " (Website)

"General Wesley Clark commented, “VIASPACE is leveraging previous NASA and DOD investment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop new generations of energy and security products.I believe VIASPACE has the technology, expertise and management to deliver important new technologies to the marketplace. I look forward to providing my knowledge and experience as they move to their next stage of development.” (Press release)

Friday, March 24, 2006

A Boeing 757 did not hit the Pentagonby Michael Meyer, Mechanical Engineer

To the members of the Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven:(Scholars for 9/11 Truth)

I would like to give you my input as to the events on September 11, and why it is a physically provable fact that some of the damage done to the Pentagon could not have occurred from a Boeing 757 impact, and therefore the 9/11 Commission report is not complete and arguably a cover-up. I will not speculate about what may have been covered up, I will only speak from my professional opinion. But I will explain why I do not believe the Pentagon was hit by a Boeing 757.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Angirffaan has located some interesting information on the business career of Dr Patel (no relation) - Private Eye has a detailed and interesting article this week about the Labour Party loaning doctor as well.

The BBC report at least 23 people, 10 of them policemen, have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

In the deadliest incident, a suicide bomber blew up his car outside the HQ of the anti-terrorist unit in Karrada, killing 15 people.

CNN reported earlier this week a shootout between police and insurgents in Muqtadya , 45 km north of Baquba, early on Tuesday, at least 15 police officers were killed along with 10 of their attackers, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said. The wounded included four police and 16 insurgents.

According to the official, a force of about 100 insurgents hit the facility with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire, seizing weapons and destroying at least 20 cars -- many of them police vehicles.

During the attack, about 30 detainees, suspected of terrorist activities, were freed, the official said.

9 more dead bodies were found in Bagdhad and bring the "official" total in the last 8 days (until Tuesday) to 186.

It must be pointed out that a state of Civil War does not exist in Iraq. A state of Civil War does not exist in Iraq.

RUSH UPDATE

Condileezza Rice in the Bahamas announces she will not take up the offer of aDirector's post with the National Football League (NFL) ... although she says she remains a great fan of ther Cleveland Browns. A disappointment to many.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

After his speech the President of the Cleveland Club opened the questioning ;

Q. ".... Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse? And if not, why not?"

PRESIDENT. (part of answer) ....." I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel, and -- (applause.)"THE OVAL OFFICE, FEBRUARY 7, 2004

BROADCAST ON NBC’S “Meet the Press"

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2004

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign-policy matters with war on my mind."

UPDATE

As Justin Raimondo reminds us in his review of the Mearsheimer-Walt study of the Israeli Lobby , what he said at Anti War in 2003 ;

"The Iraq war, as we are beginning to discover, had nothing to do with 'weapons of mass destruction,' zero to do with al-Qaeda, and zilch to do with implanting 'democracy' in the inhospitable soil of Iraq. The first phase of the second Yom Kippur War is revealing, in action, the strategic doctrine at the heart of U.S. Middle Eastern policy: the installation of Israel as regional hegemon."

Report on Yahoo News today ; CLEVELAND, United States (AFP) - USPresident George W. Bush said he hoped to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran with diplomacy, but warned Tehran he would "use military might" if necessary to defend Israel.

"The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace," the US President said after a speech defending the war in Iraq.

"I made it clear, and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally Israel," said Bush.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Tony's ex flatmate the be-jowelled, dewlapped, fat Lord Chancellor Lord Falconor of Thoroton (bearing a passing resemblance to field Marshal Goering - he had a fondess for fancy dress as well) has provided with great flourish the list of Labour lenders to whom the party is in hock to the tune of some £14 Mn plus interest at commercial rates ;

Lending Labour money - the 12 indivduals - BBC have more biographical information for each of them

Sir David Garrard, property developer and funder of TB's City Academies lent the party £2.3 million, and science minister Lord Sainsbury, provided a loan of £2 million,(in addition to massive gifts previously) were among the 12 individuals who loaned the party £13,950,000 - a significant proportion of Labour's £17.5 million spending on the 2005 election campaign. Of course a peerage is only one benefit a "lender" may seek, access to Government contracts (Capita PLC ?), etc.,

What a joy it is to be a lawyer and seek to use the assembled words of the English language in such a precise yet wholly ambiguous way.

Lord Falconer, asked if the law would be retrospective so people could assess any possible link between past loans and peerages, said: "As far as law is concerned, you very rarely pass a law which changes the law in the past.

Asked directly how many peerages (Torygraph online report)had been given in exchange for cash, replied: "None, as far as I know."

"As far as I know" - could be true, may be true but don't expect me to know.

Well Lord Falconer - yes the Labour Party is in the business of selling honours, and has been for many years - exchanging money for mediaeval titles which any sane socialist party would have abolished years ago - and should be ashamed of peddling.To compare this funding with the open and transparent funding by the Trade Unions is insulting as well.

There you go Lord F. Now you know. ... pic of Lord Falconer of Thoroton courtesy of the BBC at the site of the Millenium dome - remember the Hindujah bothers, Millenium funding and a passport or three ?

Here's his lookalike - an unelected preposterous, pompous, overweight, vain, booby who went in for grandiose buildings on a lavish scale paid for by others or simply stolen. Committed suicide.

Google "gaza food" UNDER THE news HEADING and you find this curious source for news ; Israpundit

The UN is worried about food shortages in GazaIsraPundit, Israel -18 hours agoNow, of course, Israel is blamed for food shortages in Gaza because of the “closure” imposed because of continual rocket attack occurring on a daily basis ...Now, of course, Israel is blamed for food shortages in Gaza because of the “closure” imposed because of continual rocket attack occurring on a daily basis, and of course the election of the worlds first terrorist government by a huge margin, implying massive support for terrorism from the general population.

Well, no one asked them to destroy perfectly adequate greenhouses given to them as a gift. What do they want? To terrorise and take over Israel and still expect to be fed, watered, electrified, telephoned, fuelled by their sworn enemy?

I say the border should be permanently sealed and like most other animals, let them be trained through their stomachs. They need to go home to Egypt and hand back the stolen Jewish land and right now seems as good a time to start the migration back as any. ------------------------

I suppose Google do us a favour by sourcing news from this evident voice of reason and yet don't include lots of sources such as say, the excellent Cyprus News.

One has to say the solution to the food shortage caused by the Israeli blockade since Hamas was elected by strangling the Kani crossing (open 1 hr today)is novel.

UPDATE MONDAY 23.20 GMT

JERUSALEM, March 20, 2006 (WAFA)- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that food was running out in the Gaza Strip and appealed to the Israeli authorities to allow food consignments to reach the tens of thousands of people in Gaza who depend on food aid to survive.

WFP said the extended closures of the Karni (Al-Muntar) commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza have had a devastating effect on food availability in the Palestinian enclave. Stocks of wheat flour are already critically low and there are fears that there will soon be no basic commodities in Gaza.

Vital Trivia will give you as usual a through analysis of the looming gas crisis.

Because of the closure of storage at the Rough North Sea terminal, there is a major drawdown of short term storage.

One last point that must be highlighted is the complete silence on this subject from the DTI's Joint Energy Security of Supply Working Group (JESS) writes VT.

"They are meant to publish a report twice a year, it’s description:

"A key part of JESS’s work is compiling information and making it available to the energy markets via published reports. These reports provide an insight into the work of the Group, information on background to the issues relating to security of supply and an update to the indicators on security of supply that the group is developing.

This was due in November 2005 but didn’t appear - I was subsequently promised it by the end of February and it still hasn’t been published. The latest promise from them is the end of March. I won’t hold my breath.

I suspect it wasn’t published last year since they couldn’t get the numbers to add up in such a way to instil confidence and admission of ‘the challenging situation’ was not acceptable. If serious problems do develop JESS might be a good place to start an investigation."

The BBC graph of the wholesale gas prices shows the impact on costs especially to industry - which will of course result in factory shutdowns.This also affects the running and costs and running of closed Cycle Gas trubine electricity generation plants reducing electricity supplies as demand switches to electricity.

The MSM remain totally silent about the tightrope, presumably warned off by No 10 to prevent panic. This wholly predictable shortage and the consequences for industry were apparent to anyone capable of back of the envelope reckoning 2 years ago.

In the long term decisions made today take years even decades to work through - fiddling while the UK freezes. But don't worry we've squandered Lotto money on sunsidizing some of the richest companies in Europe and Britains's biggest and richest landowner - welcome yet again to the economics of the mad house.

Perhaps we could start a "build a gas import terminal and storage facility and get an Earldom" program - even curry zillionaires have to keep warm.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Information Clearing House follow up remarks by Linlithgow MP Labour Tam Dalyell, the Father of the House, says Blair aides are skewing British foreign policy on the Middle East in favour of the Israeli government.

Dalyell suggests Blair was "unduly influenced" by figures including Lord Levy, Labour’s chief fund-raiser and Blair’s unofficial envoy to the region, Peter Mandelson, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, an Anglican who had a Jewish grandfather.

Dyell was quoted by Vanity Fair writer David Margolick latest edition of the American magazine Vanity Fair in a profile of Blair. In a passage on Blair’s "staunch" support of Israel,Tam is quoted: "The senior member of the House of Commons, Tam Dalyell, even tells me he thinks Blair is unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers. He mentions Mandelson, Lord Levy and Jack Straw."

Scotland on Sunday checked the quote with Dalyell, he replied: "I’m very open about this. I wouldn’t say I’ve been misquoted."

Dalyell, the longest-serving MP in the Commons, said hawks in Washington were already too close to the right-wing Likud government of Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.

Dalyell told Scotland on Sunday: "Blair and Straw have become far too close to these people and Lord Levy, who is an unaccountable ambassador in the Middle East, is part of this group. They are acting on an extremely Zionist, Likud-nik agenda. In particular I am concerned that some of them are pushing for an attack on Syria, for reasons of Israeli security.

"It is an enormously sensitive issue and that’s why very many of us have been extremely reticent about it, because we don’t want to be seen as anti-Semitic."

Lottery throws £10m to the windMark Macaskill and John ElliottTHE government has been accused of raiding £10m of lottery money intended for good causes to subsidise the construction of a wind farm by a foreign energy company.

The grant to a subsidiary of Elsam, a Danish energy giant that is being taken over by the Danish state, will help to pay for a wind farm four miles offshore in Liverpool Bay.

So starts the FRONT PAGE story in the Sunday Times today about the way Lottery money was allocated to altrenative energy projects in Liverpool Bay, Lockernie and to the fabulously wealthy Earl of Buccleuch.

...you could have read about it here on Postman Patel 6 months ago on October 25th 2005 ...

E.ON is to build the largest dedicated UK biomass power station in Lockerbie in Scotland. Work on the innovative 44 Mw power station will commence in late 2005 to go on stream at the end of 2007. The EUR 130Mn (£89Mn) investment by the German company, the world's largest private-sector energy services company, will be built by a consortium of the Norwegian company Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group and Siemens.

The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of the new biomass plant with a grant of £18m from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme (approx 25% of cost)

In September Siemens Power Generation announced the agreement to supply its new 3.6 megawatts wind turbine for the Burbo Banks offshore wind farm in Liverpool Bay, England. The farm is being developed by SeaScape Energy Ltd., a joint Danish( Elsam A/S ), and the French ( state owned EDF Energies Nouvelles) enterprise and will have 25 wind turbines with a total capacity of 90Mw. The order is valued at over EUR90 Mn (£49 Mn). The Big Lottery Fund, supported the development of field with a grant of £10m (20% of cost) from the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme. Read more click on titleDroit-de-seigneur

Walter Francis John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, 11th Duke of Queensberry (b. 1923) Eton and Christ Church,Oxford,owns five major landed Estates, his estimated personal fortune of £55m is supplemented by a further c.£400m held by the Buccleuch Group, his holding company.

On January 3rd this year, Buccleuch BioEnergy was awarded a tax free grant to develop the business of £571,933 from the Big Lottery renewable Energy Fund to "to develop the business ." Read more click on title

Three cheers for the hard nosed investigative journos on the Sunset Times ... first with the news. Curiously examining the log of page referrals I note a Google search "duke buccleuch lottery" last week from a London site.????